Beautiful
by polgara-5
Summary: After the final battle with Voldemort, two supposedly enemies learn something new. A Birthday fic for Harmoni9


Title: Beautiful

By: Polgara 

Rated: PG

Spoilers: Through season seven of Buffy, none really for Harry Potter.

Disclaimer: I own none of these characters they belong to either Joss Whedon or J.K. Rowling.

Summary: After the final battle with Voldemort, two supposedly enemies learn something new.

A/N: This fic is written especially for Harmoni for her birthday. I tried to have this finished on Thursday, but my TMJ flared up and I spent several days in a drug induced haze unable to write. But here it is and happy birthday!

Beautiful

Dawn was fuming as she searched the battlefield. The stupid bastard had strict instructions to stay by her side during the fight. It was all in his best interest. After all, he was wanted by the death eaters as much as Harry and Dumbledore were.

But the stupid idiot disappeared within the first five minutes and she didn't seen him since. If the death eaters hadn't killed him, she would. And if they had, she'd revive him just to kill him herself.

The insufferable git had been the bane of her existence since the day she had met him. He was the bloody thorn in her bloody side. She paused momentarily to go back over that last thought. She really needed to get out of England for a while, it was having bad influences on her vocabulary.

From day one, when Dumbledore had approached the new council looking for help against Voldemort and to help hide this sniveling brat, her life had become hell. He never let a day go by without some condescending remark towards her and her heritage. Not to mention he wasn't even thankful that they were protecting him. And who got stuck as Mr. Priss's personal bodyguard? Her, that's who. She mentally added Buffy to her list of people to kill.

"Stupid bloody bastard," she muttered as she picked her way around the bodies.

At least Voldemort had been destroyed and they weren't going to have to hide Draco Malfoy's sorry ass anymore. Provided, of course, that he was still alive. And as mad as she was, his chances were looking pretty slim.

_scenebreak_

Draco sat in the grass and stared at his father's body. Now that he was finally rid of the man who caused him so much grief and pain over the years, he felt empty. He had harbored the anger for so long that it had become a part of him and now it was gone.

The horror of what he had done hit him and his stomach turned, spilling the contents of his stomach onto the ground in front of him. He wiped his mouth on his sleeve and sat back on his heels, drawing in deep breathes of fresh air. He could see Dawn making her way towards him and quickly stood. There was no way he was going to let her know about this.

It was true that he treated her horribly, but it was the only way he knew how to protect her and himself. Because, from the very beginning, he was attracted to her. And if word of that got out to his enemies, they could've used it against him. So he had tried his best to stay as far away from her as possible. Fate, however, had its own ideas.

For some strange absurd reason, she had been assigned to be his bodyguard. Not one of the slayers. No, he wasn't important enough to garner one of them. No. The great Draco Malfoy had been stuck with an ordinary muggle for protection. He feared that he would spend most of his time protecting her instead of the other way around. But that ended up not being the case.

Somehow that slender wisp of a young woman was able to save his sorry ass time and time again. Every time he questioned her about how she did it, she would simply shrug her shoulders and say, 'that it ran in the family.' And through it all his attraction to her grew. And the stronger it got, the more he pushed her away.

He sighed, resigning himself to the tongue-lashing he just knew he was going to receive, and then started walking towards her. He wanted to be far away from the body as possible so she wouldn't know what he had done. Because then, she would finally come to know him as the monster he was and run.

"You sneaky, stupid, little bastard!" She shrieked at him. "What the hell did you think you were doing?"

"I was…"

"Just being an idiot?" She finished for him. "You could have been killed! And I would have been blamed for it. For once, could you think of someone other than yourself?"

Draco tuned her out and just watched her as she continued on. Her cheeks were flushed with anger and her emotions swam in her eyes for all to see. He felt bad about causing her to worry like that, but he really had some unfinished business with his father that he had needed to handle on his own.

She continued to lecture him, not noticing that he was no longer really listening to her, only staring. She was completely covered in dirt and gore - but she was still the most beautiful creature he had ever laid eyes on.

Realizing that he had no reason to hide his feelings for her any longer, he pulled her to him and placed his lips on hers. Her body froze at the sudden contact and he pulled away before she could push him.

"What was that for?" She asked in a hushed voice.

"Because I'm sorry."

"For what?" She asked, slightly tilting her head. The fact that she was still in his arms didn't escape her, but she made no move to remove herself from them.

"For being a horrible git to you all this time and for making you worry," he answered, gently brushing a stray hair out of her face.

"Oh."

"That's all I get. An oh?"

Dawn frowned. "Well you have to admit that was a little sudden. You've treated me terribly for the past six months, disobeyed direct orders during this fight, and then you kiss me! What did you want from me?"

"I don't know," he said, letting her go and taking a step back. "I thought you were beautiful since the moment I met you and…"

"Whoa! Wait a minute. I thought I was a disgusting muggle who…" Then her eyes widened in realization, then narrowed just as quickly. "Since the day Buffy became the slayer, I have been in danger. Since the day I started helping her, I was in even more danger. What difference would your feelings to me have made?"

"It would have mattered to me!" He yelled. "Because it would have been my fault! I don't think I could have stood it if my father had used you against me. Because I would have done anything to save you, even if it meant sacrificing myself!"

She stood there and studied him for several long minutes after his outburst. "Where's your father's body?"

He looked at her in surprise and she just rolled her eyes.

"Oh, come on. He was the only one who worried you. I'm guessin' you split from me to take care of him."

"He's over there," he said sullenly, pointing to one of the bodies littering the ground.

"Good and dead?"

"Yes."

"Any chance of him coming back?"

"No."

"Good. Let's go and report in," she said, taking his arm and steering him back to the castle.

"That's it? Don't you want to know what I did to him? How I tortured him before I killed him?"

Dawn stopped and looked up at him. "Sometimes you do things in the heat of battle or when you're lost in a sea of emotion that you wouldn't normally do. I get that and I can forgive it. The rest of the forgiveness is up to you. Whether or not you can forgive yourself," she said seriously.

"Just like that? How?"  
"Ask Willow. Now come on," she answered, tugging on his arm.

"What about…?" He asked, trailing off.

"Us?" When he nodded, she smiled and said, "We can discuss it. I need to get to know the real you first, but you're not bad on the eyes. Your butt is especially nice."

Draco smiled and bent down to kiss her but she stopped him. "What? What's wrong?"

"You're cute, but you have some majorly bad breath."

He flushed slightly. "Must be because I vomited a bit ago."

"And you kissed me knowing that?" She asked incredulously.

"It wasn't the first thing going through my head. You were standing there all beautiful like, and yelling at me, so I stopped you the only way I knew how."

"You get a bonus point for the beautiful part, but no more smoochies until you brush your teeth. Agreed?"

"Agreed," he said with a small smile.

"Great. _Now_ can we talk to the others?"

"Lead away, beautiful."

She flashed him a smile. "You're learning."

finis


End file.
